White House Call for Ideas: Help Shape a Federal Immigrant and Refugee Integration Strategy

January 13, 2015

In November 2014, President Obama announced a series of executive actions to fix our broken immigration system. As part of these actions, the President created a White House Task Force on New Americans. The goal of the Task Force is to develop a federal immigrant integration strategy that allows new Americans to contribute to society to their fullest potential and bring new Americans together with their receiving communities to strengthen communities. The Task Force is seeking input on promising practices and examples of model programs that help immigrants and refugees to contribute to your communities and our economy, and to ensure that federal programs and policies continue to reflect our ongoing commitment to welcoming and integrating newcomers into the fabric of our country. Further information is available here.READ MORE

On October 9, 2014, the Visa Office hosted an outreach event with AILA representatives to address questions related to temporary worker visas, reciprocity, and several other topics. The questions solicited by AILA and the responses provided by the Visa Office can be found here.

On November 4, 2014, the National Visa Center (NVC) hosted an outreach event with AILA representatives to address questions related to immigrant visa processing at NVC. The questions solicited by AILA and the responses provided by NVC can be found here.

The United States will begin issuing visas in accordance with a new reciprocal arrangement on November 12, 2014. Chinese applicants who qualify for a B-category nonimmigrant visa (NIV) may now be issued multiple-entry visas for up to 10 years for business and tourist travel. Qualified Chinese students and exchange visitors and their dependents who qualify for F, M, or J-category visas are now eligible for multiple-entry visas valid for up to five years or the length of their program. U.S. citizens eligible for Chinese short term business and tourist visas should also receive multiple-entry visas valid for up to 10 years, while qualified U.S. students may receive student residency permits valid up to five years, depending on the length of their educational program. Please review our FAQs for more information.

The Department of State’s authority to issue Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to Afghan nationals under section 602(b) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, as amended, was extended. 1,000 SIVs, in addition to the 3,000 visas for Afghan principal applicants originally allocated for use in Fiscal Year 2014, may be issued until December 31, 2014. We expect that these visas will all be issued before that date. We welcome action by Congress to extend this program. We are making arrangements to quickly resume issuances of SIVs to Afghan principal applicants if more visas are allocated.

The Department of State’s authority to issue Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to Afghan nationals under section 602(b) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, as amended, has been extended. 1,000 SIVs, in addition to the 3,000 visas for Afghan principal applicants originally allocated for use in Fiscal Year 2014, may be issued until December 31, 2014. The Afghan SIV program will end on December 31, 2014, unless it is further extended by Congress.

The Department of State’s authority to issue Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to Afghan nationals under section 602(b) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, as amended, is limited to 3,000 visas for Afghan principal applicants in Fiscal Year 2014. We expect that these visas will all be issued by August 2014. We welcome action by Congress to extend this program. We are making arrangements to quickly resume issuances of SIVs to Afghan principal applicants if more visas are allocated.

The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2014 required the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare quarterly reports on the status of the Iraqi SIV Program and the Afghan SIV Program. This law also required that these quarterly reports be available to the public on a Department of State website. Below are the first of these quarterly reports, which were submitted to Congress in July 2014:

The Department of State’s authority to issue Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to Afghan nationals under section 602(b) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, as amended, is limited to 3,000 visas for Afghan principal applicants in Fiscal Year 2014. We expect that these visas will all be issued by July 2014. We welcome action by Congress to extend this program. We are making arrangements to quickly resume issuances of SIVs to Afghan principal applicants if more visas are allocated.

External Link

You are about to leave travel.state.gov for an external website that is not maintained by the U.S. Department of State.

Links to external websites are provided as a convenience and should not be construed as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of State of the views or products contained therein. If you wish to remain on travel.state.gov, click the "cancel" message.